After a catch up with a friend end of 2019, I believed I had undercooked my chicken wings and given myself food poisoning. After a week of sickness and rapid weight loss, my colleague forced me to go to hospital. In the ED department I was informed they didn't want to scan me because I was ‘too young’ and that I needed to go see my GP.
So I booked in to see my GP and she sent me for a scope and it was that surgeon that just happened to ask about my weight loss and if I had bleeding when I would go to the toilet.
Which I did. I had had bleeding for a long time and never got it seen to because I was embarrassed to talk about it.
I also had a lot of bloating and my frequency of going to the toilet was increased. To him these were warning signs, he fitted me into his busy schedule and got me in for a colonoscopy a week later.
After my colonoscopy he informed me, he found a ‘lesion’ and needed me to have an urgent CT scan.
I was told it was cancer and potentially a Stage 2 they won’t know until i have a resection.
Sadly, it was actually a Stage 4 - it had moved into my endometriosis so after my resection and the results came back, I did six months plus one of chemo, I advocated for my health and had a peritonectomy because if I was staring down the barrel of Stage 4 cancer, I was going to do everything I could to fight it. I did a big chemotherapy. I opted for the drastic surgery. Because if it came back, I knew I had don't everything to fight it off.
November 2023 - it’s been 4 years and I am still disease free. I talk often about my journey on my social media as I want people to realise that no one is too young for bowel cancer.
Always advocate for yourself, you know your body the best and don’t be embarrassed if something is off or bleeding. Medical professionals are just that professional and they see many butts a day, your butt isn’t special, so make sure you talk about it.